Saturday, December 20, 2014

Fractured Fables by Jim Valentino

Now, I am a major fairy tale
and folktale enthusiast, so whenever I see any form of fairy tales and
folktales in books (whether it is through graphic novels or a retelling of the
fairy tale), I just have to pick up those series!So, imagine my surprise when I had just picked
up a new graphic novel that twists your favorite fairy tales and fables called “Fractured Fables” (think of the “Fractured Fairy Tales” segment from
the “Rocky and Bullwinkle” cartoons)
into more modern day interpretations of your favorite fairy tales!

What is this story
about?

This collection has over thirty fairy tales and fables that
are being retold in a more modern day twist and is being written by several
well-known comic book writers such as Bryan
Talbot, Doug TenNapel, Jill Thompson, Peter David, Nick Spencer and Laini
Taylor.Some of the stories featured
in this collection are:

The Secret
Princess Society

Written by Marie Cruz

Illustrated by Whilce Portacio

Mimi had a little sister named Meg who would constantly
follow her everywhere and do everything that her big sister was doing, which
would sometimes annoy Mimi.One day
however, when Meg started enrolling in a new dance class and made some new
friends, she ended up joining a mysterious club called the “Secret Princess
Society.” This club requires for the girls to go into a dark forest and meet up
with some strange guests who they would dance with all throughout the
night.Mimi then discovers that
something is wrong with this mysterious place and she tries to save her little
sister Meg from whatever forces are controlling her sister and her friends!

This is the House
that Jack Built

Written by Neil Kleid

Illustrated by Fernando Pinto

The story starts off with a man named Jack building a house
when two boys, who lived with him, started throwing their toys out of the
window.Then things get much more
chaotic later on when a bunch of neighbors, their kids and some high school
students ended up crashing into Jack’s house and started partying at Jack’s
house!

Can Jack get rid of these unwelcome guests?

Pie Eating Contest
(Tortoise and the Hare)

Written by Joshua Williamson

Illustrated by Vicente Navarrete

In this more unusual spin on the classic fable “The Tortoise and the Hare,” the
tortoise and the hare get involved in a pie eating contest and even though the
Hare was able to eat more than the Tortoise, well…. Let us just say that eating
too much pie does a number on your stomach!

What I loved about
this story:

The writing: As a graphic novel that has a huge
collection of different stories, this collection has various writers that all
came together to write their own twists on famous fairy tales and fables and
man, was this graphic novel one wild ride!There were a couple of stories in this collection that really made me
smile and laugh at the hilarious nature of these stories and my favorite
stories in this collection would have to be “Spanking Robots (Pinocchio),” which is written by Laini Taylor along with artwork by Jim Di Bartolo, “Cinderella,” which is
written by Nick Spencer along with
artwork by Rodin Esquejo and “The Real Princess (The Princess and the
Pea),” which is written by Alexander
Grecian along with artwork by Christian
Ward.These stories were my
favorites because they put an interesting twist to the classic fairy tales,
especially “Cinderella” and “The Real
Princess” and I really enjoyed how these twists just made the stories even
more interesting!

The artwork:As
with many graphic novels that has a collection of stories, there were some
artworks in this collection that I really enjoyed.My favorite artwork in this graphic novel
came from the works of Christian Ward
and Rodin Esquejo, as they were gorgeous to look at and they were probably
the most realistic artwork in this collection, since the majority of the
artwork in this graphic novel had a cartoony vibe.

What made me feel
uncomfortable about this story:

The reason why I gave this graphic novel a three and a half
star rating was because even though there were some good stories in this
collection, most of the stories I had read were just average to me and not that
interesting at all.I was a bit
irritated at the fact that most of these stories would end so abruptly without
a good conclusion to the situations that the characters are in and it just made
it difficult for me to really get into the stories.Now, I understand that because there are
various writers writing a different story, the stories would have to be
shortened in some kind of way to make room for all the stories, but still, I
would have liked it better if some of the stories have some kind of closure
that would satisfy me.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, “Fractured Fables” may have some hilarious
and creative stories that twist our favorite classic fairy tales, but there
were too many average stories in this collection that kind of downplayed my
interest for the stories in this graphic novel.

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Hello! I'm Ronyell and anyone who wants to be my friend is free to become friends with me! Also, I love followers on my blog, since I have so many great things to talk about the various books I read from time to time. I love to read, exercise, sleep and surf on the internet, with reading being my most favorite activity.
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